Time division multiple access communications (TDMA) systems comprised of a plurality of geographically separated radio transceivers which communicate with one another through a master station are generally known. The slave stations do not have direct radio contact with each other, but communicate through the master station in a designated time slot within a channel frame period. Also the master station is a piece of apparatus specifically designed to provide control and synchronization and is normally dedicated for that purpose. Typical examples of such systems are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,088, "Time Division Multiple Access Communications System", Frank S. Gutleber, Sep. 23, 1975, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,530, "Orthogonal Spread Spectrum Time Division Multiple Accessing Mobile Subscriber Access System", Frank S. Gutleber, Nov. 17, 1981. If the master or central station in these systems becomes inoperable, the entire network becomes useless or at least is impaired to the point where it is substantially useless.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improvement in radio communications systems.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improvement in time division multiple access communications systems.
A further object of the invention is to provide a time division multiple access communications system wherein covert operation is provided between multiple slave stations by way of a master station.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide an improvement in time division multiple access communications systems which include a plurality of user stations, any one of which is capable of operating as a master station.
And yet a further object of the invention is to provide improvement in time division multiple access communications systems wherein a plurality of slave stations communicate with each other by way of a master station while utilizing a single frequency.